With previous employees having had to go above and beyond the call of duty, you would have thought Andy Slaughter would be able to stump up some cash to pay his interns. Indeed the Labour MP was all for the idea back in 2010, putting his name to an EDM calling for the House to “recognise that in practice many Parliamentary internships qualify for the national minimum wage and further urges IPSA to create an interns fund to pay them fairly”. Quite right too.

Yet Slaughter has fallen short when it came to putting his money where his mouth is. On Friday he began advertising for unpaid volunteers to help in his constituency office, helping with casework and policy research. Apparently he thinks this doesn’t constitute a real job and is only willing to chip in for lunch and travel expenses. With perfect timing, today Parliament is debating a bill calling for a ban on advertising for unpaid internships. Awkward…